Davis is in a specialist unit at the Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridgeshire after suffering the stroke yesterday on the Luton team coach on the way to Ipswich.

Luton manager Mike Newell said: 'We kept quiet about it until after the match but it puts everything into perspective.

'It happened 25 minutes after leaving Luton and I am told that it might take six months before he makes a complete recovery.

'He has had an MRI scan but I am not qualified to talk about that.

'I am not going to use it as an excuse for our performance but we will never know what effect it had on the lads.

'Sol has made a bit of an improvement but he lost feeling in his left side and it has affected his speech.

'It was apparently a blockage to the brain that has caused it, but I will not go into full details as I am not sure what they are.'

Newell had seen his side concede five goals but refused to make any excuses.

He added: 'We could have been beaten by even more. We weren't at the races today. Credit to Ipswich, they played some good stuff and took their chances.

'How crucial it was that we had a goal disallowed for offside after the interval. I don't think it was offside but have had no explanation as yet.

'It would be papering over the cracks to point to one incident but obviously an equaliser would have helped us. It could have been all over by half-time and we were lucky to still be in the game.

'There are not many occasions we have been beaten by that scoreline, certainly not since I've been at the club. We had a very young back four, what with illness and injuries, but I don't want to make excuses.'

Ipswich manager Jim Magilton wished Davis a speedy recovery.

Magilton said: 'I had no idea of what had happened before the game.

'For 45 minute we were excellent and created lots of openings but we came in at half-time only one up which is always precarious.

'Once we got away with a lucky break after the interval we were excellent again. If their disallowed goal had counted it could have changed the game. I am relieved that it didn't.

'It was a game of basics. We did the simple things very well. I think that is where we got our joy.'

Alan Lee scored a hat-trick with the other Ipswich goals coming from Sylvain Legwinski and Jaime Peters.